Red Hand / Dress Movement -  ​MMIWC

Across North America, there exists an epidemic of Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women & Children (MMIWC). The red hand over the mouth and red dress have become part of an Indigenous movement to bring recognition to this crisis. ​

For decades, Native American and Alaska Native communities have struggled with high rates of assault, abduction, and murder of tribal members. Community advocates describe the crisis as a legacy of generations of government policies of forced removal, land seizures and violence inflicted on Native peoples. Read more here on the Department of Interior's Indian Affairs web site.
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Local Northern Virginia jingle dress dancer Valley Dawn White (Cherokee ancestry), has taken on a personal mission to help bring recognition to the MMIWC crisis. Here, she stands in front of a "Red Dress Installation" during a previous Bluemont Fair event in Bluemont, Virginia. Photo by Chris Anderson (Cherokee).
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(C) Photo by Phase One Photographer: Wayne K. Thomas. All images in this Phase One Collection are protected by U.S. and International copyright laws and are owned exclusively by Wayne K. Thomas. Reproduction and distribution of these images without written permission of Wayne K. Thomas is prohibited as of today’s date of 08/19/19 and going forward.

NO MORE

This gallery of photos below, "shows our support for all of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous women through a collection of photos to be visible with it across the nation to show that we not only are affected, but also we are getting the word out to everyone about what is really going on with our women," explains the photographer Wayne K. Thomas.

About the NO MORE Campaign

Copyrighted photos and story
By Phase One Photographer: Wayne K. Thomas
Phase One: This campaign titled NO MORE has been a vision I have had for some time now. The vision started with just me, but now has become bigger than me. I asked brother Wayne Thomas to do a photo shoot of me in honor of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women because I loved the photos he took of me in my first Woodland regalia. They were extremely powerful photos with a sense of strength and courage. Faith Hedgepeth of the Haliwa Saponi tribe of Hollister, NC has weighed heavily on my mind and heart since her murder. My late friend Marvin Richardson loved her to pieces, and he was one of the most vocal people I knew when it came to fighting wrongs in the community.

After talking with Wayne, it became apparent that it would be a good time for us in this part of the Native world, to show our support for all of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous women through a collection of photos and be visible with it across the nation to show that we not only are affected, but also we are getting the word out to everyone about what is really going on with our women. This is the first of what will be many collections in months to come.
For the first time, I will not be behind the lens at all times. I'm stepping outside into the creative role and also providing as much information as possible. This is not a tribal thing. It's an indigenous thing, and we cannot afford to be divided on the importance of the lives of our grandmothers, Mothers, Sisters, Daughters, Nieces, Wives, Girlfriends, Neighbors and those we do not know personally. The thing I was most proud of over the weekend was the support of the men in our community. They showed their support and their fight to protect us.

No time for division on this issue. When we are divided on issues, we see how the government handles things. That is why we must stand strong and say NO MORE!!!

Phase One Photographer: Wayne K. Thomas
All images in this Phase One Collection are protected by U.S. and International copyright laws and are owned exclusively by Wayne K. Thomas. Reproduction and distribution of these images without written permission of Wayne K. Thomas is prohibited as of today’s date of 08/19/19 and going forward.